


Operation: Save Dick Grayson From Eternal Solitude

by writer_on_fire01



Category: Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Blind Date, Civilian Dick Grayson, Civilian Jason Todd, First Dates, Fluff, M/M, Matchmaking, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28685943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writer_on_fire01/pseuds/writer_on_fire01
Summary: Dick is despairing over the possibility that he will grow old to become a crazy cat lady when Babs gets bored and decides to set him up with a blind date--namely that one guy from her gym with the good muscles. Fluff ensues. Civilian AU
Relationships: Barbara Gordon & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Comments: 19
Kudos: 147





	Operation: Save Dick Grayson From Eternal Solitude

**Author's Note:**

> For my sister, because her birthday is coming up and she really likes Jaydick :)

Dick is very, very lonely. 

He lays, sprawled on his bed and sighing dramatically as he stares up at the ceiling. 

“Oh, Barb,” he groans, addressing his roommate. “I’m so very lonely. I need somebody to  _ love!”  _

“You have me,” Babs points out, taking a seat on the end of the bed and offering him a consoling pat on the forehead.

“You friend-zoned me, remember?” Dick reminds her. “A long time ago.” 

“That I did,” says Babs solemnly. “But that’s not what I mean. What I  _ mean  _ is that maybe you can come to my sleepover with Helena, Zinda, and Dinah tonight. It’ll be fun.” 

Dick considers this option.

“Nah,” he decides. “May come across as a little weird. You ladies have fun, though.” 

“Well, you can’t mope around about being alone for your whole life if you’re not going to do anything about it,” Babs declares. “We’ve gotta get you a date. Do you have Tinder?” 

“I don’t have Tinder,” Dick says patiently. 

“Why not?”

“Do  _ you  _ have Tinder?”

Babs is, for a moment, silenced. “Okay, point taken. But you need to find a date for tonight if you aren’t gonna hang around with the Birds.” 

The  _ Birds Of Prey  _ is the name of the group’s knitting circle. It’s supposed to be a joke; a badass name for a knitting group. Dick finds it to be quite funny, especially since Babs is the only one of them that can actually knit. They’d more or less just decided to knit together once and haven’t done it since. The name has stuck, though. 

“I don’t need a date,” Dick protests. “I could always just hang out with Wally.” 

“ _ Wally  _ has a date tonight. With Artemis. And I think you should follow suit.” 

“I can’t hit on Artemis,” says Dick. “That would be mean.”

Babs sighs deeply at the bad joke before replying. “Don’t worry. We’ll find you someone.” 

***

Jason isn’t quite sure what this woman is doing. Just sort of staring at him while he works out on the elliptical.  _ This  _ is why he hates the fucking gym. 

“Hey,” Jason barks, snapping for her attention. “Hey, lady. I’m not interested.” 

“Gay?” asks the woman with a wide grin. 

“Because that’s the only reason why I wouldn’t be interested in you,” Jason grumbles. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.” 

“Good,” says the woman crisply, adjusting her glasses to sit on top of the bridge of her nose. Jason stops ellipticalling. 

“Well, what’s it to you?” he demands sharply. The woman seems undaunted.

“Barbara,” she says, sticking out a businesslike hand for him to shake. “My friends call me Babs.” 

Jason takes her hand and shakes it stiffly. 

“Firm handshake,” Babs notices. “Good.” 

“What are you playing at?” Jason interrogates.

Babs studies him thoughtfully. Then she pulls out her cellphone. The case is black with pale yellow cartoon bats all over it. Ugly, Jason decides. 

After some swiping, Babs thrusts the phone in his face. The sight now beholding Jason is decidedly  _ not  _ ugly.

It’s a man in a pale blue tank top, smiling amicably and playfully flexing at the camera. His hair is perfectly ruffled, his jaw appropriately chiseled. So, very hot. 

“What do you think?” asks Babs expectantly. 

“Not...not awful,” Jason grumbles in admission. 

“Want to see more?” 

Ignoring his better judgement, Jason nods. 

Ten minutes later, he has a blind date set up with the guy for that very night. How  _ that  _ happens, Jason is entirely uncertain. 

“His name is Dick,” Babs tells him. “He’ll be the one with the fanny pack. Y’know, so you can’t miss him. You’ll be taking him for Thai.” 

“I don’t like Thai,” Jason protests, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You do now,” Babs says serenely. “Here. I’ll give you my number. Text me a quick hello and I’ll give you the fine details later.”

She leaves Jason at the elliptical wondering what, exactly, had just occurred. 

***

“Eee!” Babs squeals, jumping slightly as a quiet  _ doodaloop  _ sounds from her pocket. She claps her hands together.

“Babs, I think you’re more excited about my date than I am,” says Dick, amused, as Babs shows him the phone. There’s a single text message on it. 

_ This is stupid _

_ “That’s  _ my date?” asks Dick, bemused. 

“Yup!” Babs chirps, her fingers working at lightning speed to text back. 

“I wanna text him,” Dick protests. 

Babs hands him the phone accordingly.

“Okay, so what do I say?” says Dick.

“You were the one who wanted to text him. You should know.”

Dick takes a good five minutes of typing in the little area and then violently backspacing. While he does, a second text appears.

_ You writing a novel or what?  _

When Dick finally presses send, it’s out of sheer necessity more than anything else. He has typed the following:

_ Girl, do you work at Starbucks? Because I like you a latte.  _

“You wrote  _ that?”  _ says Babs incredulously with a bark of laughter as she hovers over Dick’s shoulder. “Christ. I shouldn’t have given you the phone.”

“Wait--he’s typing!” They both turn to the phone with a sense of urgency. The text pops up a second later.

_...you know i’m a guy right _

Dick works to amend the situation, but as he does, another text comes in.

_ And you haven’t even met me _

Dick begins texting even faster.

_ I was using girl like an exclamation. A sentence enhancer, if you will. I’ve been made fully aware of your male-ness. And it doesn’t matter if I’ve met you. if my friend Babs likes you then you must be a pretty cool guy :) _

_ Do you even exist or am I being catfished _

_ Only one way to find out, right? ;) _

“Give my back the phone,” Babs orders him, holding out her hand.

“Can’t I at least give him my number first?” pleads Dick.

“You can do that on your date. Now, phone.”

Dick pouts as he forks the phone back over to Babs. 

***

Jason can’t help but think that he might be making a mistake as he knocks on the door of the address this Babs woman has given him. They’d originally wanted to meet already at the restaurant, but had decided against it after further deliberation. 

The whole setup is looking shadier and shadier by the minute, but community college is so boring that Jason might just burst into frustrated tears if something exciting doesn’t happen soon. He’s majoring in architecture, for God’s sake.  _ Architecture.  _ It’s like something out of one of those cheesy rom-coms he hates so much, as is the pick-up line from earlier. 

Jason realizes that Dick--if he exists--might not even know his name as he waits for the door to open.

There’s the sound of frantic rustling, and then it does. Jason realizes that the man from the photos actually  _ does  _ exist; there’s no way this isn’t him. The wide grin is there, if the flowers are a new development.

“Hey,” says the man. “I brought you flowers.”

“No shit,” scoffs Jason. He takes the bouquet and looks into the cheap plastic. “Hey, are these white lilies?” 

At this, the man beams. “You know your flowers!” Before Jason can protest, he holds out a hand for him to shake. “I’m Dick.”

“Jason,” says Jason, taking the hand.

“Babs wasn’t lying about the firm handshake thing,” Dick remarks approvingly. “I like the jacket.”

Jason looks down at himself; he’s honestly forgotten which jacket he’d chosen. It’s a leather jacket, apparently. And it  _ does  _ look pretty sharp, if he does say so himself. Not as much can be said for the logo T-shirt he’s chosen underneath. Jason cringes; at the time of actually dressing himself, he’d been half-convinced that this man’s very existence was a sham and had, consequently, not been all that worried about wardrobe choices. 

Looking back at Dick, the man has gone slightly fancier in a respectable button-up and business slacks (and, of course, the fanny pack). The two of them make for a strange pair, that’s for sure. Jason wishes that he could see the muscular arms, but they’re drowning in  _ shirt _ . 

He tells Dick so, eliciting a laugh. 

“It’s a test,” explains Dick knowledgeably. “See if you have a strong enough character to follow through with the date even without the added dashingness of my muscles.”

“Are you always like this?”

“Pretty much, yes.”

Jason sighs, stepping out of the doorway and gesturing for Dick to follow. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” Dick confirms with a wide grin. 

“Have fun, boys!” calls a voice Jason vaguely recognizes as belonging to Babs as they walk out. 

***

Dick can’t believe his luck. This Jason guy? He’s ruggedly attractive and endearingly awkward; Dick already knows how to handle the temper from his brief stint dating Helena, so that’s not going to be an issue. 

“So, we’re having Thai,” says Dick as they walk out to Jason’s car. Jason is still clutching the bouquet of white lilies a little bit too hard (a nervous tick?). It looks out of place, what with his disposition of unadulterated manliness. It’s cute. 

“I don’t like Thai,” Jason objects. Dick’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Wait, really? Babs told me that you  _ love  _ Thai.” 

Jason’s grip on the bouquet tightens slightly, the bridge of his nose wrinkling in annoyance as he spits, “well, she lied.” 

“I love Thai. It’s my favorite,” Dick pouts. Then, wanting to be an accommodating date, shrugs a dismissal and offers, “we could always do something else, though. Nothing’s set in stone.”

In truth, he’s already gotten reservations at a mediocre Thai restaurant on the edge of town. Dick decides to disregard as much, figuring that it’ll only make Jason more awkward. 

“Okay,” Jason agrees. “Like, sorry to be  _ that guy…. _ I once dated this dude that told me we could go anywhere, and I was, like, okay, let’s go get boba. Then he was like, no, I don’t want boba, so I was like, okay dude, let’s go to Bat Burger. Then he was like, no, I’m vegan on Saturdays. So I go, okay, where should we go? And he’s all, you can decide. And I’m over here all…” Jason trails off when he hears Dick’s quiet snort of laughter. “What?”

“Oh, nothing,” says Dick. “It’s just that you’re cute.” 

He’s finally gotten Jason to blush. 

“I’m not cute,” Jason insists. 

“You’ve got flowers,” Dick points out, flicking one of the petals of the white lilies.

“By no fault of my own,” clarifies Jason. 

“Fair enough,” Dick agrees. They get into Jason’s car. It’s a sleek, black sports car that seems very Jason. Or, at least, it fits the impression Dick has gotten of the guy. “So, you like boba?” Jason nods, giving him a cautious glance.

“You realize we can’t have boba for dinner.”

“Sure we can. We’re grown-ass men.” He punches Jason playfully on the shoulder. Jason’s brows furrow as he takes a moment to consider the option.

“Grown-ass men still need to eat.”

“Well, are you hungry?”

“Not really,” Jason admits.

“Great.” Dick grins widely. “Boba it is.” 

***

Jason sips a mango boba tea as he watches, amused, as Dick stands at the counter, shifting his weight from foot to foot and struggling to order. The barista (if that’s what you even call boba people) is wearing a  _ I don’t get paid enough for this  _ expression which is only amplified by the overly bright lighting. 

“Dude. Milk, or no milk?” asks the boba person for what feels like the tenth time. 

“Yes,” says Dick eventually, adding finger guns for good measure. Clearly this man knows as little about boba as seagulls do American politics. Jason, an avid boba drinker, sips smugly at his tea as Dick cringes at him. When he mouths something that looks suspiciously like  _ a help,  _ Jason just shrugs and takes another smug sip. 

“So, milk?” the poor guy--he’s probably paid minimum wage--persists.

“Yes,” says Dick triumphantly. 

“And what flavor do you want?” Boba Guy continues. 

“The one with the tapio-whatsit stuff. Yeah, that.” 

Boba Guy continues to look unimpressed. “What flavor?” he repeats. Jason snickers.

Dick looks down at his nametag. Jason can’t read it from where he sits, but the name of the man becomes apparent when Dick snaps his fingers and says, “look, Henry, old buddy old pal, I trust your opinion.”

Henry nods, looking scared. By this point they’ve attracted the attention of nearly everybody in the little shop, and Jason is very slightly embarrassed to be his date (then again, the guy is nearly handsome enough to make up for it).

“So just, uh, give me your fave.” 

Henry nods, scribbling something down on a plastic cup. 

“And would you like any toppings?”

At this, Dick looks absolutely mortified. He mutters a string of apologies as he throws down a twenty and walks off. Jason is cackling.

“Hey, what are you laughing at?” asks Dick reproachfully upon returning to the table he and Jason have claimed.

“Ugh, you’re just such a  _ dork,”  _ Jason explains. “I can’t believe you’ve never had boba before.”

“Have too,” Dick insists. Jason gives him a dubious look. “Okay, my niece usually orders for me. She’s much, much cooler than I am.” 

“An honest man,” Jason declares with a grin. “I like it.”

Jason figures that he’d like to go out with this guy again, if just to teach him to properly order boba.

***

_ “Yes!”  _ Dick cries triumphantly as he marches back into the apartment, fists in the air.  _ “Hell yeah!”  _

Four pairs of female eyes turn towards him questioningly. Babs has her knitting needles out, the rest of the women sharing a massive carton of ice cream. 

“What?” Babs wants to know.

“I’ve been kissed,” Dick declares. “And he’s hot!” 

“Nice going, man,” says Zinda around a mouthful of ice cream. She offers a high-five, which Dick eagerly accepts. 

“Aw man,” Dinah complains. “How come you’re better at getting guys than me?” 

Helena doesn’t seem to care. Babs, however, looks extremely happy as she declares, “so am I a good matchmaker or  _ what?”  _

“You must be if the guy got some liplock,” comments Dinah. 

“Oh, no,” says Dick instantly. “Wrong idea. I got kissed  _ here.”  _ He points to his left cheek.

“Really?” Babs snorts incredulously. “I wouldn’t have taken him as a cheek kiss type of dude.”

“You’ve sure changed since I dated you,” grunts Helena. “That excited over a cheek kiss. Man; if you aren’t gonna get some, what’s the point?” 

“I think he really likes me!” Dick squeaks excitedly, ignoring Helena as he skips his way to his room.

Meanwhile, in his dingy apartment on the other side of town, Jason can neither stop smiling nor let go of that stupid boquet. Although it’s less the flowers and more the fact that, on the backside of the tag, Dick has written his number, complete with a winky face. 

He pulls out his phone, typing the number into his contacts. He’s not sure if it’s too early to text, but, hell, life’s too short. Plus, this Dick guy must  _ really  _ like him to have suffered through the grueling and humiliating boba ordering process. Jason feels as though he should pay off the debt.

_ Thai next week?  _

Not a second later Jason is greeted with an onslaught of thumbs up emojis. Not a second after that, the following message pops up:

_ It’s a date ;))) _

“Hell yes,” hisses Jason into the empty space around him, pumping a triumphant fist into the air. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are appreciated


End file.
